Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has praised the work of his assistant Ryan Giggs as he settles into a new role at Old Trafford.

Giggs announced his retirement as a player at the end of last season, and after a season as part of the coaching staff at Old Trafford - where he ended up taking over first team duties for the final four games of the season following the dismissal of David Moyes - the United legend has been given the job in assisting the Dutchman tasked with restoring United to the elite of English and European football.

Van Gaal has admitted in an interview with MUTV that being his assistant isn't the easiest job in the world, as well as giving a little insight as to why he likes people who know the club to be amongst this backroom staff.

He said: "He’s working very hard, as are all my assistants. It’s important that they don’t have a job that’s 9-5. You have to work very hard when you’re my assistant – it’s not always a pleasant job. But he’s doing very well and I’m happy he’s on my staff.

“I’m used to keeping one member from the previous staff of the club because I want to know the culture and he can advise me. I want to know the players and he can advise me. I want to know the talent of the youth players and he can advise me.

“So I always pick up trainer-coaches from the last season; at Barcelona I did that with Jose Mourinho, at Bayern I did it with Hermann Gerland and now it’s Ryan Giggs. Therefore, I’m very pleased because he knows everybody, he knows the culture better than anyone working at Manchester United, I believe, so I’m very pleased he is in my staff."

There were also a couple of other interesting quotes, including that the staff are more important with the players, implying that he has to put a lot of trust in his backroom staff in order to implement the ideas for his team to be successful.

But van Gaal has explained the importance of having people around the club amongst this staff who know it well. It was also obvious that he wanted to draw on people's knowledge as much as possible when he said at the press conference to mark his unveiling that he would try to find a role for Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Phil Neville.

Therefore it is of little surprise that the Dutchman has spoken so highly of Giggs.

Ian Bolland

A journalism graduate of Liverpool John Moores University. During his time at university, Ian spent time on work experience at local newspapers in Liverpool, Bolton and Wigan, and prior to that he did work for The Observer's 'fans verdict'. Ian also has interests in news, current affairs and business but mostly sport, including football, rugby league, cricket, golf and Formula 1, amongst others.